Breaking limits

The next day I awake late, the pill must make me overslept, I feel a little dizzy, I check the temperature one more time to see how I was, but the fever was already down, I stand up and went to the bathroom and after washing my face I look around, but there was no sign of Evelyn anywhere.

I opened the door of my room and shouted the name of Evelyn, but she didn’t respond, she never did something like that, and more importantly, she was always in my sight. When I sit down in my chair I remember what she said.

“I will take care of myself… she didn’t mean…”

I turned on my monitor and saw the location name and other stuff that I had opened.

She must have seen this, but why? Why did she do this? I didn’t have any of this in front of my screen… dammit…

“Evelyn…”

I saw the floor and I saw dirt, I saw my feet but they were clean, I clicked my tongue and started to search for sports shoes, socks and something to cover me and I jumped from the window, I went outside the door of my house and saw the neighborhood.

My legs started to shake like crazy but that meant nothing to me right now, I was up to a mission now, I wasn’t going to let down Evelyn, so I forced myself to be in the street, and I saw one person jogging.

He stopped, taking off his headphones and approaching me.

“Hito?”

“Hmm?”

“Hito, you made it out of your house…”

“Mr. Hakari?”

“Yeah, it’s me, oh god…”

Mr. Hakari seemed like she was about to cry but he only hugged me.

“W-What are you doing here, son?”

“S-Sorry, have you seen a tall woman with tan skin? I am searching for her”

“Oh, yeah, I saw it in the morning, what is it with her?”

“I need to give her something, did you see where she goes?”

“She was asking some people around, I think she was trying to get to the mountains but some people recommend her to use the train”

“Understood, thank you, Mr Hakari”

“Ah- Wait! AZURA!”

I didn’t have time to have some nostalgic encounter, I needed to find Evelyn first, she was my priority, I ran and when I saw a person that seemed to stay in that place for a bit, I asked for her.

She went the old route, with her stamina she would be able to go without any problem, but I needed something else. With the money that I had in my account, I went to a store and searched for an employee.

“E-Excuse me”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

“I want one of your motorized bicycles”

“Do you have the money to pay for that, kid?”

I showed the guy my debit card and put it on the counter. The guy was a bit shocked and I left the store mounted on the bicycle to the mountains.

It was about to be sunset, and when I noticed, I looked at the back of Evelyn and I started to scream.

“EVELYN!”

She stopped right there and turned around, her eyes telling me more than any word, a lot of things were happening in her mind and she couldn’t even say a word, but I could.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT, EVELYN?!”

“Azura… what-”

“I’m here because of you”

“I-I do not want you to be here for me…”

“It’s too late for that”

“But, you would only be hurt by it… it is my fault that you feel sick… you were trying to conquer your fear because of me and…”

“Yeah, I was, but it is such a bad thing?”

I got off the bicycle and held Evelyn's hands.

“I did it for you, and for me too… I wanted to conquer my fear because I wanted to accompany you… and I am even here now… even though I feel exhausted…”

“Azura…”

“Don’t let me out of your life yet, Evelyn…”

I hugged her and she responded with a hug. We stayed like that for a few minutes and after that, we went to a place near a river while we were lying down looking at the stars.

“There is one of those cafes nearby, we should head out there”

Evelyn nodded and I kept looking at the stars.

“How do you feel now, Azura?”

“I calmed myself a bit, I felt like I was going to throw up from all the exercise…”

“Not that, I am referring to being outside”

“Oh that… yeah, it feels really strange but it feels good, even though I really felt the anxiety eating part of my mind, I think I can tolerate it, it makes more anxious thinking in coming back”

“Why is that?”

“A neighbor saw me, he probably is going to ask me a ton of questions, he was a close friend of my dad, but we never really talked, he knew I was in my situation but… I don’t want to blame him, I know better than no one how hard is to approach me, and more in my past state”

Evelyn just laughed and kept staring at the stars.

“Thank you for coming, Azura…”

“You already thank me enough, but for being such a positive person, you really let yourself down”

“I don’t like causing problems to anyone and less to the people I care about… My parents and brothers always said that I had such extreme forms of showing regrets…”

“Now I see why, you need to let others depend on you and doing things for you, you are a really hard worker, an amazing person, Evelyn”

Evelyn didn’t say any word and I tried to look at her but she moved her head to the other side.

“Thank you…”

I just laugh and I stand up, lending her a hand.

“Let’s go”

Evelyn nodded, smiling at me and we went to the nearest town on the bicycle.

“This is such good transport, you do not have horses in here, right?”

“No, there are some people that uses horses but is very rare to see them, instead we use metal machines, like this one, this is a motorized bicycle and the ones that are large are called cars”

“I understand…, so this car is the same as the train?”

“No, see the train tomorrow, you really are going to be surprised… oh, is in here”

We stopped at the coffee shop, we went inside and Evelyn had to put her head down a bit to enter, we went to the store and I paid for the two of us for all night. When we arrived at the door Evelyn sat down on the floor and looked at the space.

“It’s tiny”

“Because you are too tall”

“Hey!...”

I laugh a bit and lend her a menu.

“Whatever coughs your eye, you can ask for it, you must be hungry… I am starving to death”

“Are you dying?!”

“No… it is an expression… I should be more careful with what I said with you… or teach you some words”

Evelyn puffed her chicks and hit me softly, we order a variety of food, curry, ramen, gyozas, pizza and to top it all ice cream and a coffee with some taiyaki

“So this is real curry”

“Yeah, although it tastes less tasty than yours”

Evelyn was enjoying the flavors of the curry and analyzing at the same time.

“You really made such funny faces”

“I think I got it, next curry is going the be fantastic”

“I can’t wait to see that”

Evelyn was delighted with everything, seeing her being in her usual self really made me relax, we finished eating and I went out carrying a ton of books and disks.

Evelyn saw the books while I was searching on the disk.

“So you can see the people inside the disk?”

“No, it’s something made up, same with the stories you are reading”

“I can only understand the pictures but this guy right here seems very cool, he carries a giant sword and defeat beast”

“Yeah, is one of my favorites, here, let that aside, let’s watch this”

“What is it about?”

“You’ll see I don’t like to spoil things up so you had bad luck”

I put a movie on the TV that the cafe had and covered myself and Evelyn with a blanket. We lean into each other watching the movie. It was a man on the beach meeting another girl and having a one-day adventure. The girl and the man ran together and they seemed to have a ton of fun.

I saw myself in the movie with Evelyn and I just had a silly smile, I was slowly falling asleep and Evelyn was too. I could feel how our breathing was slowly synchronizing, making an improvised lullaby. The movie ended and the TV shut on its own as we were sleeping touching arms and heads, holding our hands as the day passed.